


A Mile in Your Shoes

by AnonEhouse



Series: Starvation Sleep-Deprivation Stories [13]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Humor, old lady - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-24
Updated: 2015-03-24
Packaged: 2018-03-19 10:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3606243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonEhouse/pseuds/AnonEhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve gets an apartment in the poor part of town, and his elderly neighbor takes him under her plaid-covered wing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Mile in Your Shoes

(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)

Steve chose an apartment in Coney Island deliberately. He was more comfortable with poverty and poor people than the glitz and glamor surrounding Avengers' Tower. Oh, he stayed at the Tower most days, and worked to form team unity, but when he wanted to relax and just be Steve Rogers, he went back to his third floor walk-up where the neighbors were mostly elderly and the pipes weren't all that much newer.

He signed the lease under his own name, but since no one would expect Captain America to be living in a seedy dump, the reporters that hung around the Tower never showed up in Coney. It was nice. Peaceful. He'd moved in a good bed, a mini fridge, and comfortable, basic clothes, all exactly alike so he didn't have to think about style. He'd sort of put his 'shield' over the folks in his apartment building, and after interrupting a few would-be muggers and young men who harassed the helpless, word got around that there were more profitable buildings for a 'bit of fun'.

When he first came home, he'd put on his running gear, and have a good hour or so pounding the pavement, then he'd return and shower under tepid water before making himself a simple meal. When he ran, he really ran so the soles were often flapping on his shoes as he went up the stairs. It didn't matter, he bought them by the case, stuffed under his bed.

He was heading for his door, key already in hand, after a particularly good run that had warmed up his muscles, when he noticed the shoes lying in front of his door. Captain America running shoes. In his size. Printed with his shield and stars and even his smiling face on the toes. He sighed. He should have known it was too much to expect that Tony wouldn't get curious, or that JARVIS wouldn't be able to locate him. "Damn," he said softly as he picked them up. They _glittered_. In a fit of annoyance he threw them against the wall. It made an embarrassingly loud "THUMP".

A moment later the door across the hall from him popped open, and one of his sweet little old lady neighbors peered out. "Something wrong, Steven?" Beulah asked.

Steve felt his face warm as he bent over to pick up the shoes. "Nothing. It's just. Charity." He waved the shoes. "I don't take it."

"And so you shouldn't," she said approvingly. He saw her gaze dip to his shredded shoes, and she frowned. "Wait a moment, Steven." She disappeared back into her apartment, which he knew was neat, but well furnished with memorabilia and tchotchkes. It was more than a moment, but not too terribly long, before she emerged, smiling, with a pair of running shoes. "You're the same size as my Jimmy," she said with satisfaction. "It's not charity, if it's from a friend."

Steve had to take the shoes. The worst part was that they fit as if they'd been made for him, and his neighbor now seemed to have a proprietary interest in keeping him shod. So he'd leave wearing Jimmy's slightly yellowed sneakers, with a pair of his own sneakers stuffed under his oversized running shirt. He'd burn up his own sneakers, toss them in the nearest bin, and put Jimmy's shoes back on before he reached his building. That was ok, he could go along with that, it was a minor nuisance.

But then one day a mutant lizard attacked when he was out for a jog. It was only one lizard, and hadn't anything special, like poison or acid, so he took care of it on his own. But. It had sharp claws. He'd healed the scratches almost immediately, but the fight had taken a little time, so he would be late getting back to the apartment, and Beulah would be worried. Worried sick, maybe. So he went home as he was, and spun a story about getting in the middle of a cat fight by accident.

Jimmy apparently had a taste for plaid. And his chest and arms were a match for Steve. The trousers were baggy, but Beulah cheerfully put in a few stitches. Steve thanked her graciously, and started leaving caches of clothes in alleys all over Coney Island. He knew it couldn't go on forever, but he stubbornly clung to his plan.

Up until the day it was more than one lizard while he was in Jimmy's clothes, and he had to call in the Avengers. Iron Man tossed Steve his shield, and waited until the battle was over, with no serious injuries, before he lifted his faceplate and laughed himself sick at 'Captain Plaid' and 'Captain Scotland', and so on, until Steve told him it wasn't funny.

"Gifts from an admirer?" Tony asked.

Steve said shortly, "Her name is Beulah, and these clothes belonged to her Jimmy. He died in the war. My war." Then he gathered his dignity and went home.

Beulah was upset at the state of his clothes, but _luckily_ she still had more of Jimmy's wardrobe. Stripes in shades of brown. It might as well have been plaid.

The next day there was a RAT-A-TAT-TAT pounding on his door. Steve got up and flung it open. "WHAT?"

Tony stood on Steve's mat. He tossed off his sunglasses, shouted, "BROTHER!" and wrapped his arms around Steve in a tight embrace.

"What?" Steve asked, bewildered. He saw Beulah's door open. She was staring, wide-eyed, at them. 

"I looked for you everywhere after dad passed! You were always his favorite! Why didn't you come home?"

"This is my home," Steve said, scrabbling for the remnants of his cover.

Tony made a face. "Just because you're my step-brother doesn't mean you're not family! You want to stay here, fine, but you're taking your share of the inheritance whether you like it or not!"

Beulah beamed, and wiped a sentimental tear from her eye.

Steve sighed.

 

After that, Steve wore clothes really too nice to run in, but the apartment building mysteriously got upgrades everywhere with no raise in rent, so he supposed it wasn't too bad that Tony knew about it.

And he did really smile the day Nick Fury showed up in a postmaster uniform, to apologize to Beulah that somehow seventy years of government checks in Jimmy's name had been mislaid and gave her a bank account whose numbers made Steve blink. She had hugged and kissed Fury, which completely made Steve's day.

So, things worked out ok, and Steve didn't mind wearing the plaid scarf Beulah gave him as her last 'Jimmy gift'. He thought it was kinda stylish.


End file.
